The term biology is derived from the Greek word βίος, bios, "life" and the suffix -λογία,

-logia, "study
of."[7][8] The Latin-language form of the term first appeared in 1736 when Swedish scientist Carl
Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) used biologi in his Bibliotheca botanica. It was used again in 1766 in a
work entitled Philosophiae naturalis sive physicae: tomus III, continens geologian, biologian,
phytologian generalis, by Michael Christoph Hanov, a disciple of Christian Wolff. The first German
use, Biologie, was in a 1771 translation of Linnaeus' work. In 1797, Theodor Georg August Roose
used the term in the preface of a book, Grundzüge der Lehre van der Lebenskraft. Karl Friedrich
Burdach used the term in 1800 in a more restricted sense of the study of human beings from a
morphological, physiological and psychological perspective (Propädeutik zum Studien der
gesammten Heilkunst). The term came into its modern usage with the six-volume treatise Biologie,
oder Philosophie der lebenden Natur (1802–22) by Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus, who announced:[9]
The objects of our research will be the different forms and manifestations of life, the
conditions and laws under which these phenomena occur, and the causes through which
they have been effected. The science that concerns itself with these objects we will indicate
by the name biology [Biologie] or the doctrine of life [Lebenslehre].
Although modern biology is a relatively recent development, sciences related to and included
within it have been studied since ancient times. Natural philosophy was studied as early as the
ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indian subcontinent, and China. However, the
origins of modern biology and its approach to the study of nature are most often traced back
to ancient Greece.[10][11] While the formal study of medicine dates back to Hippocrates (ca. 460–
370 BC), it was Aristotle (384–322 BC) who contributed most extensively to the development of
biology. Especially important are his History of Animals and other works where he showed
naturalist leanings, and later more empirical works that focused on biological causation and the
diversity of life. Aristotle's successor at the Lyceum, Theophrastus, wrote a series of books
on botany that survived as the most important contribution of antiquity to the plant sciences,
even into the Middle Ages.[12]
Scholars of the medieval Islamic world who wrote on biology included al-Jahiz (781–869), Al-
Dīnawarī (828–896), who wrote on botany,[13] and Rhazes (865–925) who wrote
on anatomy and physiology. Medicine was especially well studied by Islamic scholars working in
Greek philosopher traditions, while natural history drew heavily on Aristotelian thought,
especially in upholding a fixed hierarchy of life.
Biology began to quickly develop and grow with Anton van Leeuwenhoek's dramatic
improvement of the microscope. It was then that scholars
discovered spermatozoa, bacteria, infusoria and the diversity of microscopic life. Investigations
by Jan Swammerdam led to new interest in entomology and helped to develop the basic
techniques of microscopic dissection and staining.[14]
Advances in microscopy also had a profound impact on biological thinking. In the early 19th
century, a number of biologists pointed to the central importance of the cell. Then, in
1838, Schleiden and Schwann began promoting the now universal ideas that (1) the basic unit
of organisms is the cell and (2) that individual cells have all the characteristics of life, although
they opposed the idea that (3) all cells come from the division of other cells. Thanks to the work
of Robert Remak and Rudolf Virchow, however, by the 1860s most biologists accepted all three
tenets of what came to be known as cell theory.[15][16]
Meanwhile, taxonomy and classification became the focus of natural historians. Carl
Linnaeus published a basic taxonomy for the natural world in 1735 (variations of which have
been in use ever since), and in the 1750s introduced scientific names for all his
species.[17] Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, treated species as artificial categories and
living forms as malleable—even suggesting the possibility of common descent. Although he was
opposed to evolution, Buffon is a key figure in the history of evolutionary thought; his work
influenced the evolutionary theories of both Lamarck and Darwin.[18]
 Serious evolutionary thinking originated with the works of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, who was the
first to present a coherent theory of evolution.[19] He posited that evolution was the result of
environmental stress on properties of animals, meaning that the more frequently and rigorously
an organ was used, the more complex and efficient it would become, thus adapting the animal to
its environment. Lamarck believed that these acquired traits could then be passed on to the
animal's offspring, who would further develop and perfect them.[20] However, it was the British
naturalist Charles Darwin, combining the biogeographical approach of Humboldt, the
uniformitarian geology of Lyell, Malthus's writings on population growth, and his own
morphological expertise and extensive natural observations, who forged a more successful
evolutionary theory based on natural selection; similar reasoning and evidence led Alfred Russel
Wallace to independently reach the same conclusions.[21][22] Although it was the subject
of controversy (which continues to this day), Darwin's theory quickly spread through the scientific
community and soon became a central axiom of the rapidly developing science of biology.